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Syria peace talks

TEHRAN: The chances of Syria peace talks in Switzerland succeeding without the participation of Damascus ally Iran are “not that great,” Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Tuesday. “It is clear that a com–prehensive solution to the Syria issue will not be found when all influential parties are not involved in the process,” Araqchi told state television. “Everyone knows that without Iran the chances of a real solution to Syria are not that great,” he added. Araqchi’s comments come a day after the United Nations abruptly withdrew Tehran’s invitation to Wednesday’s peace conference in the Swiss town of Montreux over its refusal to back calls for a transitional government to end the war in Syria. Tehran is accused of providing military and financial support to Damascus, despite insisting that it has no official military presence in Syria and that its backing takes the form of humanitarian aid. It has staunchly … [Read more...] about Iran doubts Syria peace talks success

By Agence France-Presse A new round of Syria peace talks opens on Tuesday, the latest United Nations push to resolve a six-year conflict that has killed more than 320,000 people. Five previous rounds of UN-backed negotiations have failed to yield concrete results and hopes for a major breakthrough remain dim. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has strengthened his position on the ground, with the rebels reeling from a major setback in the capital Damascus. Assad has also recently called the Geneva process “null”, telling Belarus’s ONT channel that it had become “merely a meeting for the media”. The Syrian leader has however given more credit to a separate diplomatic track in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana, which is being led by his allies Russia and Iran along with opposition supporter Turkey. The Astana track produced a May 4 deal to create four “de-escalation” zones across some of Syria’s bloodiest battlegrounds. The UN’s Syria … [Read more...] about Syria peace talks restart in Geneva

MOSCOW: Russia and the United States (US) have agreed to push for holding Syria peace talks in mid-November, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday after talks with his US counterpart John Kerry. “We advocate holding the international conference [on Syria]in mid-November,” Lavrov told journalists after holding talks with Kerry in Bali, Indonesia. “Today we agreed on the steps needed for both the government and the opposition to come to the conference,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by the RIA-Novosti news agency. The so-called Geneva-2 peace conference aims to bring together the warring sides in the country where more than 115,000 people have been killed since the start of an uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, according to activists. UN chief Ban Ki-moon also proposed mid-November for the conference late last month during his first meeting with Syria’s opposition National Coalition chief Ahmad Jarba, who … [Read more...] about Russia, US agree on mid-November Syria peace talks

Russia and the US have agreed to push for holding Syria peace talks in mid-November, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday after talks with his US counterpart John Kerry. “We advocate holding the international conference [on Syria]in mid-November,” Lavrov told journalists after holding talks with Kerry in Bali, Indonesia. “Today we agreed on the steps needed for both the government and the opposition to come to the conference,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by the RIA-Novosti news agency. The so-called Geneva-2 peace conference aims to bring together the warring sides in the country where more than 115,000 people have been killed since the start of an uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, according to activists. UN chief Ban Ki-moon also proposed mid-November for the conference late last month during his first meeting with Syria’s opposition National Coalition chief Ahmad Jarba, who said he was ready to send … [Read more...] about Russia, US agree on mid-November for Syria peace talks: Lavrov

By Agence France-Presse Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that efforts to end Syria’s six-year war were entering “a new stage” ahead of a planned meeting of Syrian government officials and opposition leaders, warning both sides that compromise would be necessary. The new talks should happen soon, Putin said after a summit with Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, insisting that they would reinvigorate a hobbled peace process. “It is obvious that the reform process will not be simple, it will require compromise and concessions from all parties, including obviously the Syrian government,” Putin said after two hours of talks with Rouhani and Erdogan in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appeared to endorse Putin’s call for a “congress” of regime and opposition figures, with a foreign ministry source telling the country’s SANA news … [Read more...] about Putin urges ‘compromise’ ahead of new Syria peace talks

GENEVA: The United Nations reopens its Syria peace talks on Tuesday but the Damascus government’s last minute announcement that it may not come to Geneva delivered a blow to the already faltering negotiations. The eighth round of talks were seen as a chance for the UN to revitalize its push to end the six-year war, which has killed more than 340,000 people and left Syria in ruin. UN envoy Staffan de Mistura has stressed the urgent need for progress towards a political solution and had been bolstered by the fractured opposition’s decision to form a unified negotiation team for the first time. But on the eve of the talks reopening, de Mistura told the Security Council that President Bashar al-Assad’s government had not yet committed to show up. “The government did not yet confirm its participation in Geneva but indicated that we would be hearing from them soon,” he said. Regime negotiators did not travel to Geneva on Monday, all but assuring they will be … [Read more...] about UN restarts Syria peace talks but Assad absent

ENNISKILLEN, United Kingdom: G8 leaders called on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) for a peace conference on Syria to be held as soon as possible but deep divisions remained as Russia stood by its embattled Middle East ally. At the end of two days of tough talks in Northern Ireland, the leaders agreed to push for a transitional government in Syria that could include members of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime who switched sides. The Syria crisis overshadowed a deal by the world’s leading industrialized nations gathered on the picturesque banks of Lough Erne to crack down on tax evasion and share more cross-border financial information. British Prime Minister David Cameron insisted the leaders had forged a strong agreement on Syria despite a split with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but their closing statement was short on concrete steps. Cameron, the summit host, said Assad could not join a transitional administration after the deaths of 93,000 people and what Western … [Read more...] about G8 calls for urgent Syria peace talks

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Moscow would welcome Indonesia joining Syria peace talks scheduled to take place in Geneva later this year. “We believe it is possible to expand the number of (conference) participants by including such big Muslim states like Indonesia. In my opinion, it would be quite natural and we’d welcome it.” AFP … [Read more...] about RUSSIA WELCOMES INDONESIA IN SYRIA PEACE TALKS

The peace process in the Swiss city has been increasingly overshadowed by a separate track organised by regime allies Russia and Iran, and rebel backer Turkey. In principle, the new round of Geneva negotiations will focus on four so-called “baskets”: A new constitution, governance, elections and combating “terrorism.” As he arrived for the talks on Monday, UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura told reporters: “We will work very hard.” The last talks ended in May with little progress towards ending a war that has killed more than 320,000 people since it began in March, 2011. De Mistura said after that round that “important gaps remain… on major issues,” and that time constraints had stymied progress. Syria’s opposition insists that President Bashar al-Assad must step down as part of any political solution to the war, but the government says Assad’s fate is not up for discussion. Still, both sides are expected to participate … [Read more...] about Syria peace talks resume after ceasefire

Facing Western criticism over the halt to Syria peace talks, Russia said Friday it plans to present new ideas on how to restart peace efforts at a meeting of nearly 20 key nations on Feb. 11. Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Moscow hopes other members of the International Syria Support Group meeting in Munich will also “shoulder responsibility” in restarting talks between the government and opposition. Tensions were high during and after a closed Security Council briefing by Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy for Syria, over who was to blame for this week’s suspension of the Syria talks. Britain and France blamed the halt on the government’s current offensive, backed by Russian airstrikes, against Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city. … [Read more...] about Russia to revive Syria peace talks with fresh ideas